Kate Winslet Bio: Titanic Star and Academy Winning Actress

She was born to a working class family, and began studying acting at only eleven years old. She began her formal acting career began as a rebellious youth in the 1991 BBC television science fiction serial “Dark Season.” Afterwards, she became an Oscar winning actress who made it big in Hollywood with “Titanic,” yet chose not to take advantage of her instant fame. She instead followed her personal interests, and fought against Hollywood's perceptions of beauty and embraced humanitarian causes. Join WatchMojo.com as we explore life and career of actress Kate Winslet.

POST YOUR COMMENTS

VIDEO SCRIPT

The sinking of a cruise ship made her a star of “Titanic” proportions. Welcome to WatchMojo.com and today we'll be taking a look at the life and career of Kate Winslet.

Kate Elizabeth Winslet was born October 5th, 1975 in Berkshire, England. She came from a working class family, and began studying acting at age 11 at the Redroofs Theatre School.

She got her first taste of showbiz when she starred opposite the Honey Monster in a television commercial for Sugar Puffs cereal. Her more formal acting career began with a role as a rebellious youth on the 1991 BBC television science fiction serial “Dark Season.”

This led to work on the three-part miniseries “Anglo Saxon Attitudes,” before she shed some weight for the TV series “Get Back,” and began a relationship with her co-star Stephen Tredre.

In 1993, Winslet made her film debut when she beat 175 other hopefuls to star in Peter Jackson's “Heavenly Creatures.” There, she played a teenager who helped murder her best friend's mother. This won Winslet both an Empire Award and London Film Critics' Circle Award for British Actress of the Year.

She was then cast as Marianna Dashwood in the high profile adaptation of “Sense and Sensibility.” The project was a critical and commercial success, and it earned the starlet her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

Though this was a major milestone, it paled in comparison with her success in 1997. That year, Winslet co-starred opposite Leonardo DiCaprio as a rich socialite in James Cameron's mega blockbuster “Titanic.” That picture ended up bringing in $2.7 billion at the worldwide box office, and gave Winslet a million dollar salary as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. However, she missed the film's Los Angeles premiere due to the death of her former boyfriend, Tredre.

Her love life took a turn for the better when she married film director Jim Threapleton in 1998. However, she decided not to capitalize on her newfound “Titanic” fame and instead chose to avoid other big budget Hollywood projects. Instead, she spent her time on the projects “Holy Smoke!,” “Quills” and “Enigma.” In that film, she played a woman who falls in love with a brilliant World War II code breaker. Clever camera work was required to hide her pregnancy throughout that shoot.

In 2001, she shared the title role with actress Judi Dench in the acclaimed picture “Iris.” There, they each played a novelist at different times in her life. This won her another Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Meanwhile, her marriage to Threapleton ended, and she married with director Sam Mendes two years later. She followed this move by starring in a string of hits, including “The Life of David Gale,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Finding Neverland.”

In 2006, she starred in the Academy Award-nominated role of Sarah Pierce, who was the reluctant housewife of a successful and distant husband obsessed with a porn star in “Little Children.” She also lent her voice to DreamWork's animated feature “Flushed Away,” and showed off her comedic side in “The Holiday.”

Having previously flirted with Oscar gold, Winslet finally won the coveted statue in 2008 for “The Reader,” before reuniting with Leonardo DiCaprio for the marriage drama “Revolutionary Road.”

Her second marriage ended in 2010. When she began to experience noticeable weight fluctuations, she declared that Hollywood would never dictate her appearance, and that women should be happy with the way they look. She likewise founded the non-profit organization The Golden Hat Foundation, whose mission became to help those with autism.

In 2011, she played the title role in the HBO mini-series “Mildred Pierce” and won both a Golden Globe a Primetime Emmy Award. She rounded out the year by playing an epidemic intelligence service officer following the rapid progression of a lethal virus in “Contagion.”

Kate Winslet is an Oscar winning actress who made it big in Hollywood with “Titanic,” yet chose not to take advantage of her instant fame. She instead followed her interests, and became influential by rallying against Hollywood's perceptions of beauty and by embracing humanitarian causes.